The Indonesian navy and members of a search and rescue team lift the wheels of the ill-fated Lion Air flight JT610 after they were recovered from the sea yesterday. Photo: Adek Berry / AFP

Syachrul Anto, 48, who died yesterday (Nov 2), was part of the team searching for body parts and debris from the jet in the Java Sea.

“He was a volunteer with the Search and Rescue Agency,” Isswarto, commander of the Indonesian navy’s search and rescue division, said.

It is believed he died from decompression, he added.

Anto had previously served in Palu which suffered from an earthquake and tsunami in September and also took part in the evacuation process of an AirAsia plane crash nearly four years ago.

The Lion Air plane which plummeted Monday (Oct 29) was on route from Jakarta to Pangkal Pinang city on Sumatra island.

It plunged into the water just minutes after take off, killing everyone on board.

Officials on Thursday (Nov 1) retrieved the Flight Data Recorder but are still searching for the second black box, the Cockpit Voice Recorder, which could answer the question as to why the brand new Boeing-737 MAX 8 crashed.

The budget carrier’s admission that the doomed jet had a technical issue on a previous flight – as well its abrupt fatal dive – have raised questions about whether it had mechanical faults specific to the new model.

At least 73 bags containing body parts have been retrieved from the waters so far but only four have been identified.

Founded in 1999, Lion Air is a budget airline operating in Indonesia and in some parts of Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East.

But it has been plagued by safety concerns and customer complaints over unreliable scheduling and poor service.

The carrier has been involved in a number of incidents including a fatal 2004 crash and a collision between two Lion Air planes at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport.

Comment on this story

* Please login to comment. If you do not have an account please register below by simply entering a username, password and email address. You can still leave your comment below at the same time.